To Train As A Social Worker At 40?

The apprenticeship works in that those undertaking it already have experience in the sector and can “hit the ground running”.

From what I can gather the Scottish apprenticeship would mirror the 4 year degree rather than being a shortened route, that may change though as it’s early days in terms of planning. The existing part time work based routes are done over 2-4 years and your existing workplace counts for one of your placements. I’d like to see them widen access where possible.

OP why not look into doing the access to SW course alongside working? I did it via learndirect. I did the work in the evenings and over weekends which allowed me to continue to work full time. If you have GCSE maths and English that’s all you’d need to do to be eligible for the degree course.

That would be amazing, but I’m not sure how it would work in reality.

Numbers would have to be extremely limited, otherwise LA would be taking on groups of people with no experience into support roles and be expected to train them, assess them and have them complete the academic side in just two years. The apprenticeship works in that those undertaking it already have experience in the sector and can “hit the ground running”. Assignments, portfolios, placement supervision while working in the role 4 days a week is hard enough, without doing it with zero experience. We shall see though I guess!

*Maybe I could look at doing a course with them around working and keep an eye out for any full times roles within the council for admin or something working with children I’m able to apply for.

Have a look at any kind of support worker type role with children or adults. The social work degree is a generic qualification so you don’t necessarily need experience with children - it’s more working in a social care environment that matters. The OU have some good courses you can do that might also count towards a social work degree. You have lots of time to gain experience and some learning before trying to get on an apprenticeship.

I trained as a teacher aged 53. Have had 8 years in the career /leaving now and getting 35k lump sum and a 5k pay pension from those years well as the salary I’ve had -about 50k pa (private school) so not bad at all -you are massively younger so go for it!

What have you got to lose? Why is it the wrong time? Just apply and see what happens. You're a long time dead!

There are already routes for existing local authority workers to qualify as a social worker while working in social care roles in Scotland through the OU and Robert Gordon Uni, if employers chose that route. I imagine local authorities may eventually recruit directly into the sw apprenticeship which would open up the profession - which is the reason for starting an apprenticeship offer in the first place.

I think on the balance of probability, it’s fair to say that someone working in an admin role that is completely unrelated to the field is unlikely to be eligible.

As many others have pointed out - the apprenticeships currently running are employer lead. They are for people who are currently working for a LA in a related role who wish to step up into social work. It’s highly likely that this new one will be the same.

People don't want OP to get her hopes up. Colleges and universities do not run apprenticeships; they are contracted to deliver the taught/academic elements of the employer led apprenticeship. Employers decide to run apprenticeships and then look for an academic partner to offer the degree. Lots of apprenticeships such as engineering recruit externally but it's the employer who recruits, not the academic partner; that's how apprenticeships work. I don't know of any social work apprenticeships that recruit externally.

40 is the new 20!

I'm 40. And I've started lots of things this year.

I'm in an allied role and retrained around the same role. In my office, it's us 'maturer' people that just seem to handle the role better as we have more work and life experience. You get used to being hated pretty quickly.

Not unreasonable no. You can retrain into a new career at any age.

It might be good to sit down with a few social workers and ask them questions. Do you know any?

If not, you could ask the university questions

But that’s the whole point, it IS only X roles that are eligible for the apprenticeship.
It’s fair to assume that if she’s talking about the SW apprenticeship then she’s in the UK.

Apprenticeships are just being launched in Scotland - the entry route hasn’t been finalised yet, so I don’t think we can definitively say X roles are eligible this far.

But that’s the whole point, it IS only X roles that are eligible for the apprenticeship.

It’s fair to assume that if she’s talking about the SW apprenticeship then she’s in the UK.

If the OP is serious about becoming a social worker, she needs to be clear on the paths that she can take, and the apprenticeship isn’t one of them if she’s working in an unrelated field.

How can we give advice if the initial information the OP has is incorrect? How is it not helpful to make sure she knows that?

It doesn’t differ across LA’s because the courses, and therefore requirements, are set by Social Work England, NI Social Work Council, Social Care Wales or SSSC depending on which country in the UK the OP is in.

@TheSilkWorm I'm sure the OP can find out the entry requirements from the college she's looking at, but telling them that it's X days or X funding or X roles only isn't helpful when that varies significance across different authorities (also not sure the OP has even specified which country?)

I'm on a SW apprenticeship right now and I'm over 50! Age is not a factor, I just need to commit to staying at the LA for two years post qualifying.

However I already worked for the LA as a 'adult social care practitioner' (basically 95% same job as a qualified worker but less pay). Others from children's who are doing this work as support workers.

It's 4 days at work and 1 day university each week plus loads of extra study. You need to be working in a relevant role as there are direct observations almost from the start and you learn 'on the job'. You can't do this while working in admin elsewhere!

I suggest getting some kind of support worker role in the LA and applying to their scheme.

Except if she's misunderstood the way to get on the course it is relevant. To do an apprenticeship you need to be employed within an associated role.

You are correct. A social work apprenticeship means you are employed by a local authority or other organisation who manage your work/placements and allow you to attend the course on day or block release. It's not possible to apply direct to a course because you first need to be employed by the training provider who nominates you to be interviewed for the degree.

Definitely not too old. And probably life experience and experience of managing competing priorities in a heavy workload is a massive asset.

If you will be based in one LA check it out carefully - staff retention, what current staff say. They vary massively. I am in health but a role that works closely with sws across three LAs and the differences can be night and day.

It is a legally important role. Done well it makes a massive difference. It is true that so much is proceduralised for clients it can feel like box ticking and if a family needs early help and the local offer is rubbish it can be very disheartening as the actual sw cannot do much about that.

But in all caring professions the how of the role matters too - whether we're nurses, doctors, psychologists, occupational therapists, social workers we're seeing people at some of the toughest stages in their lives, when they are vulnerable and easily hurt. If you can make ensuring their interactions with you are still helpful your highest priority you can still make a difference.

It's totally doable. I know a woman in her early 40s who's training to become a nurse and she had mostly admin experience prior to starting the course.

Absolutely not unreasonable. My sister is doing a degree to become a social worker, she loves working in adult social care, but as part of her degree had to work in child social care for a while which she didn't like. Her speciality is adult care luckily

Also I don't think people questioning the op about the course is helpful, there are different routes into social work (more than ever in eng & Wales) but the way that apprenticeship or sponsored schemes are run and the entry requirements vary across different local authorities. As long as it's a course that allows you to register with the appropriate professional body at the end of it it's worth considering, and getting some advice from the provider about what they're looking for.

In my local authority there are apprenticeship schemes that are available to those already working for the local authority, they used to only take people in similar roles such as family support, but due to the pressures our family support or early help staff rarely want to apply (their rates are also quite good, albeit not as high as SW) So it's more common to have people from non related roles but can demonstrate relevant life experience/interest.

For some reason loads of my friends are all turning 40 this or next year, 80% of them have just retrained or are retaining currently. Do it!

On a BA you do three placements within services that you would sign post clients to. Or within a supporting service. Your final placement is more with SW. The training is set by the Social Work Council. They set training standards, so although there are fast track/employer led schemes, they still have to meet a set criteria. I got out of C&F SW while going through the menopause, which isn't uncommon. Have you read around the processes used by SWs and what they actually do? The plans they write are often supervised by family support etc, your plan is as only as helpful what your budget allows and how good your support services are. What's shocking is the lack of support for child rape/sexual assault victims. A parent can sexual abuse/kill their child but you've got to work with them to possibly keep another baby. There's a lot of children given back by the court, against the wishes of the SW and who end up dead or severely disabled. The severe disabilities don't get the coverage that the deaths do. During the previous government's terms, we wondered who the service was benefiting. I'd write down how you want to help and see if it comes under the remit of Social Work (and not the support services).